Laura she sent me a bumper pack of vegan goodies: Kallo Sea Salt and Balsamic Vinegar Rice Cakes - The Food Doctors: Couscous and Lentil Pot; Hot Wasabi: and Chipotle Crisps - Morrisons Chilli Pistachios; and Salt and Black Pepper Cashews - Dairy free White and Chocolate chips - perfect for making cookies! - Nakd Pineapple; and Tangy Lime raisins ( a super nice change from Nakd bars!) and two completely new things for me to try - On the Go Carrot and Pecan Punch; and Spirulina Powder - I am looking forward to receiving some raw dessert recipes from Laura to try out the spirulina powder, I've had it as a health supplement, but have never used it in cooking. Thank you so so much Laura, its nice to have discovered some totally new things in my parcel. The Salt and black pepper cashew packet is already empty.

My receiving partner Vegan Vox. Here is a photograph of what I sent her. I hope she likes!

Wednesday, 29 January 2014

This naturally 'creamy' vegan Parsnip Soup is one of my absolute favourites. I make it often, though not always with the garnish of black rice. The soup takes on that golden glow from the turmeric, perfect for blustery days. If you wish to make this soup even more 'creamier' you can add coconut milk to it, but I personally find it unctuous and naturally creamy without it. The black rice gives the soup some texture and bite. I am sending a virtual bowl of this warming soup over to my friend Sally at Poppycock and Other Creative Nonsense, as she is suffering from the cold. Hope your feeling better soon Sally.

Saturday, 25 January 2014

Did you know that Wales has its own Valentines Day known as Dydd Santes Dwynwens celebrated today - the 25th January.

St Dwynwen is The Welsh Saint of Love and Lovers.

Artwork by Norris Nuvo

Saint Dwynwen lived in the 5th century AD and was one of twenty four daughters of Saint Brychan. Its a strange story, surrounded by much speculation. The story goes, that Dwynwen fell in love with a man called Maelon, nothing unusual there I know, however what is interesting about this story is the outcome - She is then either raped by Maelon and prays for help: or she is unable to marry him due to her fathers refusal and prays to forget her love for Maelon. An angel comes along and provides her with a potion. Maelon consumes it and it turned into ice. She repents at what has become of her love and prays for three wishes. These three wishes are: that Maelon be released; God look after all true lovers; and that she remain unmarried for the rest of her life. She retreats to Llanddwyn Island, off the coast of Anglesey to become a recluse and live in solitude until the day she dies around 460AD. The site has become a pilgrimage for lovers and is visited to this day.

Her name Drynwen translates to 'she who leads a blessed life; and her most well known saying is 'nothing wins hearts like cheerfulness'. So if you want to show your loved one a little affection today and celebrate St Dwynwen's Day with us today, why notdownload a Welsh Love Spoon Card for your loved one tonight, courtesy of Visit Wales.

Friday, 24 January 2014

Over the years the
Scottish haggis has undergone many guises from its traditional
serving with mashed neeps and tatties on St Andrews Day or Robert Burns
Night, to celebrate the Caledonian national bards birthday. These days there
are many fusion ways to eat the hearty haggis. There is haggis samosas,
haggis pakoras, haggis pasty, haggis spring rolls, haggis
wontons, haggis lasagne, haggis pastitsio, haggis moussaka - a creation of my Greek flat mates when I was at University of Glasgow, haggis tostados, haggis Tex Mac nachos, haggis sandwiches, haggis panini's, haggis bon bons, haggis pies, vegetarian haggis Scotch eggs! haggis quesadillas and
even haggis wraps, in fact you name it, and someone, somewhere had made it!

Well here is my fusion offering that I created four years ago when Scotland was my home - Portobello Mushroom Haggis Pakoras with Curried Neep Chips. Please follow this link for some more interesting facts about Scotlands ethnic and cultural diversity and its fusion influences on cuisine. In the cities of Scotland,
you will often see aPunjabi-style haggis on menus at pubs and
restaurants. To the traditionalhaggis recipe additional ingredients
such as onions, cumin seeds, garlic, ginger, green chillies and other spices
are added and Naan bread, rotis and chappatis replace
the traditional 'neeps' and 'tatties'.

When I lived in Scotland, its
diverse communities were recognised in a BBC Radio Scotland transmitted a programme Ravi Burns. In place
of Burns's 'Address to A Haggis', the Scottish Sikh comedian actor Sanjeev
Kohli gives us Ode to a Samosa: "Wee sleekit, cowrin'
triangular tastie, oh what a picnic is in thy pastry'. The novelist
Alasdair Gray also recited 'To a Mouse' against
a background of sitars.

Now
back to my dish. You may already know that every South Asian (m)Ummi Ji whether
she is from India, Pakistan or Bangladesh will have her own traditional recipe
for pakoras, but the one I am using for this recipe combines both
Scottish and Punjabi cuisines. I often serve this with curried neep chips
and mint-yogurt chutney.

Sunflower or olive
oil for fryingMethod
To make the pakora batter, put all the dry ingredients into a
large bowl and minced green chilli and mix. Add water gradually and mix the
batter until smooth but not thick. Leave aside for 5-10 minutes.
Steam the haggis for 20 minutes, then break it up with a fork so that it can
cool down.
In the meantime, wipe clean the mushrooms and cut out the core.
Heat the oil in a frying pan for 5 minutes. Scoop out a tablespoon of haggis on
the mushroom, press and spread it gently with the back of the spoon. Add more
haggis if required but not too much. Do this with all the mushrooms. When this
is done, gently place the mushroom into the batter to coat, I use my hands, but
use a spoon if you wish to ensure batter covers the mushroom.

Heat
the vegetable oil. Place 2 – 3 mushrooms into the pan, ensuring not to crowd
them out and fry for 3-4 minutes until golden-brown. Turn the mushroom over so
that it is evenly golden. Once cooked, remove from the pan and place onto a
kitchen towel to dry.

For the curried neep
chips

One large swede,
turnip or rutabaga, peeled and sliced into chips

Toss in generous
coating of olive oil

Bake in a moderate
hot oven, turning now and again until slightly golden.

In
the last 10 minutes, sprinkle over either 1 teaspoon curry powder or garam
masala and a sprinkling of salt. Cook for a further 10 minutes. Then
serve warm.A variation of this post was originally written in January 2010.

Wednesday, 22 January 2014

For those of us in colder climates, that need warming up - I offer you a virtual bowl of
'vegetable chilli', it makes a nice change from bowl of soup.

Its full of vegetable goodness such as mushrooms that are plentiful, tinned or frozen sweetcorn that many of us have lurking in the back of our cupboards, even tinned beans. I've used kidney beans here, but you can use chickpeas, butter beans - whatever takes your fancy. As you can see there are chunky carrots here too. You can use the good old variety of carrots for this dish, but this time of year I prefer to make the most of little dumpy baby carrots known as chantenay carrots. In fact you can use any vegetable you wish, but the colours of these just shout warmth to me.

Tuesday, 21 January 2014

I tend to make individual hand-made pies every other week now, that includes pastry made from scratch. D tends to take them into work and my nephews and nieces quite like them too.One of the popular ones I make is the Paprika Mushroom and Potato Pies. Well to ring the changes this time round in place of potatoes I decided to replace them with butter beans. It was a lovely change from the stodge of the potatoes.

Monday, 20 January 2014

I picked up some Jerusalem artichokes at the weekend from a food producers market. Come rain or shine, I find myself there every two weeks now.

The plan was to make some Jerusalem Artichoke crisps - my favourite way to eat what is otherwise described as 'farty chokes', but with it being rather cold, I opted for soup. The crisps were not forgotten, I made them too. Instead of serving the soup with bread or topping it off with crunchy croutons, I decided on crisps - well why not?!

Wednesday, 15 January 2014

I have shared this Rock'n'Roll Bagel before, I dubbed it then under the much cooler name of The Elvis Presley Bagel. The reason I am sharing this vegan bagel post again, is that I made it today for my breakfast. I didn't fancy cereal today, I spotted some strawberry jam and some crunchy peanut butter, a banana in the fruit bowl and remembered we had some bagels in the freezer. Suddenly breakfast was ready!I also thought it would be another good opportunity for me to showcase it to new readers visiting my humble little blog via Veganuary.; and Food'n Fix for the first time.

Sunday, 12 January 2014

I have my head down as I have things happening in the background, if any success comes of any of them I will share them with you later int he week, if not it will stay in the background and I will move on once more.In the meantime, to help me get on with these tasks, D has volunteered to make vegetarian or should I be more precise and say Vegan Sunday Roast Dinner with most of the trimmings. I suggested instead of accompanying the vegetables with a brand name vegan family roast, he have a go at making this Chestnut Mushroom Tofu Roast. I reminded him how much he enjoyed it the last time I made it.He smiled back, 'yes - you made it'.

Friday, 10 January 2014

A little hijiki goes a long way. Hijiki is a mild, earthy flavoured seaweed. Hijikiis certainly an acquired taste - havingumamiflavours. You can find packets at most Asian and Oriental supermarkets. At first the hijiki seaweed looks like dried tea strands, but when soaked and reconstituted it swells to about 4 times its original weight. Like all seaweed, hijiki must be rinsed thoroughly before being added to the dish you are making .

Wednesday, 8 January 2014

Pearlcouscous is also known as Jumbo couscous, Israelicouscous; and Jerusalemcouscous. It should not be confused with the traditional
semolinacouscous.
Pearlcouscous as the name suggests are round beads or
tiny balls. Unlike traditionalcouscous,pearlcouscous is made
from baked wheat rather than semolina. It is very similar to pasta in
that it holds it shape and texture.

This Beetroot Salad certainly has theWow factor, especially as the bleeding juices from the beetroot penetrated the pearlcouscous . In fact the longer its left the colour
deepens, as well as the flavour.

Monday, 6 January 2014

Its not easy to find rainbow chard or any other chard for that matter at large supermarkets, probably because it has a tendency to wilt not long after being picked. No, the best place to find bunches of chard are at proper greengrocers and farmers markets where you can buy it direct from the grower, as I did about a month ago for my Ruby Red Chard Pasta Loaf. Chard is the one strikingly leafy stem that I am so looking forward to growing again, closely followed by the handsome curly kale. There is so much diversity amongst the chard from bright lights chard, oriole chard, perpetual spinach, rainbow chard, rhubarb chard, silverline chard and the most well known of them all Swiss chard. I loved how the colourful stems added a splash of colour to the garden the way flowers do.

Sunday, 5 January 2014

I was never a fan of Brussels sprouts before I started this blog, in fact I positively detested them. Like as child ignoring them whenever they were served up on my plate. But this changed, when I started growing my own vegetables. I challenged myself to find ways of 'trying' to enjoy the vegetables that I grew as well as those that I purchased; and this meant cooking them creatively - not just out of the culinary box, but out of the traditional vegetable basket; and this trend has continued with other vegetables. Anyway, I've mentioned before that now my absolute favourite way of eating Brussels sprouts is oven roasted, so that those hard green baby cabbage balls transform into something soft, more delectable: charred golden, crisp here and there, but mostly caramelized. However, in this particular recipe, the sprouts are cooked slowly oven the heat in a frying pan. The sprouts still get a similar treatment as you would from oven roasting. If your still sceptic about sprouts, I woudl encourage you to try them this way, you may find yourself liking them, like I did.

Saturday, 4 January 2014

On New Years Day, I mentioned that I had some black eyed peas on the simmer. Well once those black eyed peas were well cooked. I decided to cook Trini Black Eyed Peas and rice with squash. Trini being Trinidad.

Friday, 3 January 2014

Raw vegan protein fruit balls seem to be the rage at the moment, just take a gander atPinterest. I came across them many years ago in a nutritionist cookbook and even in one of my raw food cookbooks, but dismissed them for two reasons. One, they were being promoted as health food and at the time that was not my focus; and secondly I just found them way too simple. something, that my nephews and nieces could knock up in the home economics class, but I have to day my opinion of them has changed somewhat recently.

Yes dried fruit protein balls come under various guises: amazeballs, bliss balls and even date bombs, but for me they will always be a raw gluten free flapjack in a perfectly formed round morsel of a bite. Okay enough of the waffling, I have two recipes to share, similar to the Cranberry Date Bites.

Wednesday, 1 January 2014

May I wish you all a Happy New Year. I hope to reflect on 2013, but just don't feel like doing so right now. What I will say is that I am glad 2013 is in the past, and that I am positively looking forward to 2014. Okay onto food. Many of you will know that I am a vegetarian; and what I cook and eat at home is hugely vegan, it is with this in mind I signed up last month to participate in Veganuary. Veganuary is a campaign in association with Viva! that is encouraging people to pledge and eat delicious vegan food, for every meal this January. Although I have some black-eyed peas on the simmer reputed to bring you good luck and prosperity if eaten on New Years Day, right now I am going to share a simple recipe of Cranberry and Date Snowballs .

About Me

est. 2008 a Welsh Not For Profit Blog: showing the versatility of vegetables and fruits by sharing and creating delicious platefuls of food inspired by the many diverse 'ethnic' world cuisines from sweet to savoury!
I have over 1500 vegetarian and vegan recipes. Please explore my culinary blog space with some honest random thoughts and things thrown in too.